‘A Gathering’ at Unbiased Dance | Evaluate

Phrases by Katie Hagan and Stella Rousham.

Launched in July 2021, Independent Dance’s annual Worldwide Competition of Studying is designed to place the accent on expanded approaches to studying, collaboration, efficiency and worldwide change, with 30+ artists bringing a fortnight of labs, talks and performances. 

We attended A Gathering on 10 December, an all-day occasion marking the pageant’s midway level and one bringing collectively over 20 artists with work spanning ritual, collectivity, belonging, assist and pleasure. 

A Gathering was delicately and punctiliously curated. Like tributaries of a river, A Gathering was a complementary assemblage of dialogue, efficiency and energetic participation that converged in a robust but fluid wave that flowed by way of Siobhan Davies Studios.

A Gathering began gently and warmly, with the crisp December solar lighting the beechy roof studio that crests Siobhan Davies Studios. Laughing yoga with dance artist and laughter chief Flora Wellesley Wesley eased us into this dance day marathon, assuaging any early winter chills from our our bodies. 

After laughing yoga and a short pause away from the studio to redress the area, we had been welcomed again in and invited to sit down in a circle. Totally different scents and smells imbued the room with a way of calm but in addition anticipation for what was to come back. 

The primary ‘speaking’ session of the day was a dialog with Brian Lobel, artist and scholar whose work offers together with his private expertise of getting most cancers, Denise Rowe, director of Earth Dances and Rebecca Swift, Inventive Director of Entelechy Arts, chaired by Nic Conibere referred to as Who belongs, the place and the way.

After introducing themselves, Nic invited Brian, Denise and Rebecca to replicate on what they consider belonging to be. The dialog fairly organically and shortly turned to taking a look at unbelonging and the methods during which we ‘collect’ in an expert context. The three audio system and Nic – additionally bringing us ‘spectators’ into the dialog – mentioned necessary contact factors together with the character of ‘gathering’ after we work and the way we will keep away from gathering in a method that’s exclusionary to individuals who have totally different life experiences. 

We then had the pleasure to take part in a motion session led by dance artist Denise Rowe. Bathed within the golden heat of the sunlit Roof Studio, we, together with the opposite 20 odd contributors, had been guided by way of a grounding, restorative and calming improvisation, accompanied by the soothing tingles of the mbira. Rooted in themes of ancestry and orbiting a central bowl of water that lightly ricocheted with the vibrations of motion and music within the room, Rowe used focussed contact based mostly companion work and flooring patterns – putting fingers on the again of one other, stepping forwards, away from the fingers – that evoked robust sentiments of what it meant to really feel and embody (be)longing. 

Across the constructing at sure intervals was a durational efficiency that includes Adam Moore, Abby Nocon, Erin Robinsong, Sophie Seita and Florence Uniacke who shared winter readings and rituals.

The durational efficiency was each elegiac and boldly experimental. As viewers members had been free to wander between studios, performances and talks, they had been gently washed over by these durational performers, who, like the present of a river, meandered into each enclave of the Siobhan Davies Studios. Costumed in darkish electrical blue overalls, the water-like performers delicately toyed with viewers consolation and expectations, discovered at unpredictable intervals draped over banisters, arranging miniature installations of dried flowers and incense on the touchdown or tumbling within the courtyard (which, apparently, attracted the quizzical eye of pedestrians). We notably loved passing the performers by on the steps; reworking what might be a fairly repetitive journey between studios right into a sort of improvised dance itself. 

A watch social gathering of streamed dwell performances adopted, with work from Carolina van Eps, pavleheidler, Michael Kaddu, Elvan Tekkin, George Maund screened on a projector in a darkish room. The streaming was kaleidoscopic and trippy in its aesthetic, typically deliberately and at different intervals unintentionally so as a consequence of connectivity points. Nonetheless nonetheless, the distorted shapes and glitchy sounds added to this type of weirdly dystopian digital artwork present during which questions of id, belonging and not-belonging had been raised.

The anticipated and doubtlessly fairly meaty longtable dialogue led by a few of Unbiased Dance’s artist-ambassadors Mira Hirtz, Alisa Oleva, Teresa Skamletz and Rosalie Wahlfrid got here simply earlier than dinner. All contributors had been free to sit on the desk once they had the urge to contribute – both verbally or textually, including their ideas to a mind-map operating the size of the desk. 

Relating vitally prescient points with the up to date dance/artwork sector – care, accountability, structural inequalities – the  fluid format of the dialogue did have its drawbacks. Some folks did share private reflections and experiences of working within the dance trade. Sharing was one thing we had been all inspired to do. But, it wasn’t fairly clear the place these necessary conversations may then be taken as soon as the longtable ended. While laudable for its radical intentions to generate a participatory and horizontal dialogue of delicate trade points, the ‘open’ format nonetheless appeared to empower those that already felt assured and secure within the area to talk, leaving a major variety of contributors who nonetheless didn’t really feel comfy to sit on the desk. 

After an ambrosial dinner got here a comic book, whimsical, dancing-in-your-bedroom model solo efficiency by Flora Wellesley Wesley. On this piece Flora used laughter as a approach to provide respite and aid. Meme-like in its tone, Flora bedecked her dance with humorous, nonsensical however surprisingly sensical statements similar to ‘Extra of a chokehold, a somatic choker’ as a approach to carry us collectively, to create a way of sharedness and commonality on the finish of the day.  

A Gathering completed in true model with a participatory efficiency by A Band That Dances (fka The Yonis). By way of a collection of their biggest “hits”, this up to date motion band didn’t shrink back from utilizing spoken phrase, pulsing rhythms, wit, and viewers engagement, to remodel the Roof Studio right into a pageant of pleasure and collective expertise. By way of a skillful steadiness of iconic unison dance numbers, sharp comedic timing and nuanced social commentary, A Band That Dances fastidiously captured the continuous tensions and contradictions of womanhood. The grande finale – a Ceilidh-remix weaving collectively viewers and performers alike – was a real hit and absolutely the embodiment of belonging.

Header picture: Who belongs, the place and the way speak that includes Brian Lobel, Denise Rowe, Rebecca Swift and chaired by Nic Conibere, at ID Worldwide Competition of Studying (2022), photograph Cheniece Warner.